Australian bonds jump tracking U.S. Treasuries after CB consumer confidence sags amid continuing trade tensions

The Australian government bonds jumped during Asian session Wednesday tracking a similar movement in the U.S. Treasuries after the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index in the United States for the month of September sagged, amid continuing trade tensions and an otherwise, silent trading session that witnessed data of little economic significance.

The yield on Australia’s benchmark 10-year note, which moves inversely to its price, plunged 4 basis points to 0.947 percent, the yield on the long-term 30-year bond slumped nearly 3 basis points to 1.558 percent and the yield on short-term 2-year slipped 1 basis point to 0.746 percent by 03:45GMT.

The US’ Conference Board consumer confidence slumped to a 3-month low of 125.1 in September, down from a revised 134.2 in August, amid trade war concerns weighing on business and labor market conditions, OCBC Treasury Research reported.

US President Donald Trump accused China of currency manipulation and IP theft at the UN General Assembly and said he would not accept a “bad” deal, even though the Chinese government reportedly gave new waivers for tariff-free US soybean purchases, the report added.

Wall Street retreated with the S&P 500 index registering its biggest daily drop in a month, while UST bonds rallied overnight to send the 10-year yield to as low as 1.63 percent intraday (lowest since September 10) and the USD40b of 2-year notes fetched a strong bid-cover of 2.64x. In addition, the NY Fed’s 14-day and overnight repo operations were oversubscribed ahead of the quarter-end, OCBC further noted in the report.

Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 index edged tad 0.64 percent up to 6,705.50 by 03:50GMT.